Republican likens contraceptive mandate to Pearl Harbor, 9/11

Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly (R), an ardent opponent of abortion rights, said that today's date would live in infamy alongside those two other historic occasions. Wednesday marked the day on which a controversial new requirement by the Department of Health and Human Services, which requires health insurance companies to cover contraceptive services for women, goes into effect.

"I know in your mind you can think of times when America was attacked. One is December 7th, that's Pearl Harbor day. The other is September 11th, and that's the day of the terrorist attack," Kelly said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. "I want you to remember August the 1st, 2012, the attack on our religious freedom. That is a day that will live in infamy, along with those other dates.

1. what does business and health care have to do with religion??

5. To people like him, *everything* is to do with religion - specifically, his

If he wants to justify any of his prejudices, he'll turn to his religion, and he'll feel confident there's something there he can use, even if it means ignoring vast amounts of contradictory information from the same religion (such as quote mining the bible to justify cutting welfare, while ignoring the scores of injunctions in it to help the poor). Then he'll say this shows it to be part of 'natural law', or 'a God-given right', or, as in this case, something that 'freedom of religion' demands he must be allowed to do.